Category Archives: Visual Design

The underlying structure of a page’s layout can be understood as a visual hierarchy, where some visual elements on the page are subordinate to others. The visual hierarchy helps guide the user’s eye through the page, and aids users in … Continue reading →

Most applications deal with data that needs to be stored persistently — that is, saved — so that it can be accessed later. A “persistence concept” or “transaction concept” is an explanation, at the user-interface level, of how this works in … Continue reading →

To make your application or website easy to use, you need to make it easy for users to navigate. That means that users have to be able to understand: where they currently are, where they can go, and how to … Continue reading →

Your application’s interaction concept is a basic summary or description of the fundamental way the user interface works. It describes the general way that users interact with the application to complete their tasks. Because usability problems tend to emerge when … Continue reading →

In the previous post, we argued that minimizing cognitive load is essential for creating an efficient and enjoyable user experience. Here are some design tips and techniques to consider for reducing cognitive load in your software product: Use consistent naming, labelling, … Continue reading →

Donald Norman, in his book The Design of Everyday Things, introduced several basic user interface design principles and concepts that are now considered critical for understanding why some designs are more usable and learnable than others: Consistency One of the … Continue reading →

My book, Designing Usable Apps, is now available!

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kevin Matz, founder of Winchelsea Systems Ltd. and creator of the ChapterLab word-processing app. This is my blog about usability and UX design for websites and software products. Let me know what you think!